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The
Witchcraft Trials in Salem: A Commentaryby Douglas
Linder

O Christian
Martyr Who for Truth could dieWhen all about thee Owned the hideous lie!The world, redeemed from superstition's sway,Is breathing freer for thy sake today.--Words written by John Greenleaf Whittier
and inscribed on a monument marking the grave of Rebecca
Nurse, one of the condemned "witches" of Salem.

From June through
September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been
convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren
slope near Salem Village, for hanging. Another man of over
eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for
refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds
of others faced accusations of witchcraft. Dozens languished
in jail for months without trials. Then, almost as soon
as it had begun, the hysteria that swept through Puritan
Massachusetts ended.

Why
did this travesty of justice occur? Why did it occur in Salem?
Nothing about this tragedy was inevitable. Only an unfortunate
combination of an ongoing frontier war, economic conditions,
congregational strife, teenage boredom, and personal
jealousies can account for the spiraling accusations, trials,
and executions that occurred in the spring and summer of 1692.

In
1688, John Putnam, one of the most influential elders of Salem
Village, invited Samuel Parris,
formerly a marginally successful planter and merchant in
Barbados, to preach in the Village church. A year later,
after negotiations over salary, inflation adjustments, and
free firewood, Parris accepted the job as Village minister. He
moved to Salem Village with his wife Elizabeth, his
six-year-old daughter Betty, niece Abagail Williams, and his
Indian slave Tituba, acquired by
Parris in Barbados.

The
Salem that became the new home of
Parris was in the midst of change: a mercantile elite was
beginning to develop, prominent people were becoming less
willing to assume positions as town leaders, two clans (the
Putnams and the Porters) were competing for control of the
village and its pulpit, and a debate was raging over how
independent Salem Village, tied more to the interior
agricultural regions, should be from Salem, a center of sea
trade.

Sometime
during February of the exceptionally cold winter of 1692,
young Betty Parris became strangely ill. She dashed about,
dove under furniture, contorted in pain, and complained of
fever. The cause of her symptoms may have been some
combination of stress, asthma, guilt, boredom, child abuse,
epilepsy, and delusional psychosis. The symptoms also
could have been caused, as Linda Caporael argued in a 1976
article in Science
magazine, by a disease called "convulsive ergotism" brought on
by ingesting rye--eaten as a cereal and as a common ingredient
of bread--infected with ergot. (Ergot is caused by a
fungus which invades developing kernels of rye grain,
especially under warm and damp conditions such as existed at
the time of the previous rye harvest in Salem. Convulsive
ergotism causes violent fits, a crawling sensation on the
skin, vomiting, choking, and--most
interestingly--hallucinations. The hallucinogenic drug LSD is a derivative of
ergot.) Many of the
symptoms or convulsive ergotism seem to match those attributed
to Betty Parris, but there is no way of knowing with any
certainty if she in fact suffered from the disease--and the
theory would not explain the afflictions suffered by others in
Salem later in the year.

At
the time, however, there was another theory to explain the
girls' symptoms. Cotton Mather had
recently published a popular book, "Memorable
Providences," describing the suspected witchcraft of an
Irish washerwoman in Boston, and Betty's behavior in some ways
mirrored that of the afflicted person described in Mather's
widely read and discussed book. It was easy to believe in 1692
in Salem, with an Indian war raging less than seventy miles
away (and many refugees from the war in the area) that the
devil was close at hand. Sudden and violent death
occupied minds.

Talk
of witchcraft increased when other playmates of Betty,
including eleven-year-old Ann Putnam,
seventeen-year-old Mercy Lewis,
and Mary Walcott, began to exhibit similar unusual behavior.
When his own nostrums failed to effect a cure, William Griggs,
a doctor called to examine the girls, suggested that the
girls' problems might have a supernatural origin. The
widespread belief that witches targeted children made the
doctor's diagnosis seem increasingly likely.

A
neighbor, Mary Sibley, proposed a form of counter magic. She
told Tituba to bake a rye cake with the urine of the afflicted
victim and feed the cake to a dog. ( Dogs were believed to be
used by witches as agents to carry out their devilish
commands.) By this time, suspicion had already begun to focus
on Tituba, who had been known to tell the girls tales of
omens, voodoo, and witchcraft from her native folklore.
Her participation in the urine cake episode made her an even
more obvious scapegoat for the inexplicable.

Meanwhile,
the number of girls afflicted continued to grow, rising to
seven with the addition of Ann Putnam, Elizabeth Hubbard,
Susannah Sheldon, and Mary Warren. According to historian
Peter Hoffer, the girls "turned themselves from a circle of
friends into a gang of juvenile delinquents." ( Many people of
the period complained that young people lacked the piety and
sense of purpose of the founders' generation.) The girls
contorted into grotesque poses, fell down into frozen
postures, and complained of biting and pinching sensations. In
a village where everyone believed that the devil was real,
close at hand, and acted in the real world, the suspected
affliction of the girls became an obsession.

Sometime
after February 25, when Tituba baked the witch cake, and
February 29, when arrest warrants were issued against Tituba
and two other women, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams named
their afflictors and the witch hunt began. The consistency of
the two girls' accusations suggests strongly that the girls
worked out their stories together. Soon Ann Putnam and Mercy
Lewis were also reporting seeing "witches flying through the
winter mist." The prominent Putnam family supported the
girls' accusations, putting considerable impetus behind the
prosecutions.

The
first three to be accused of witchcraft were Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborn. Tituba
was an obvious choice (LINK
TO TITUBA'S EXAMINATION). Good was a beggar and social
misfit who lived wherever someone would house her (LINK
TO GOOD'S EXAMINATION) (LINK
TO GOOD'S TRIAL), and Osborn was old, quarrelsome, and
had not attended church for over a year. The Putnams brought
their complaint against the three women to county magistrates
Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne,
who scheduled examinations for the suspected witches for March
1, 1692 in Ingersoll's tavern. When hundreds showed up, the
examinations were moved to the meeting house. At the
examinations, the girls described attacks by the specters of
the three women, and fell into their by then perfected pattern
of contortions when in the presence of one of the suspects.
Other villagers came forward to offer stories of cheese and
butter mysteriously gone bad or animals born with deformities
after visits by one of the suspects.The magistrates, in the
common practice of the time, asked the same questions of each
suspect over and over: Were they witches? Had they seen Satan?
How, if they are were not witches, did they explain the
contortions seemingly caused by their presence? The style and
form of the questions indicates that the magistrates thought
the women guilty.

The
matter might have ended with admonishments were it not for
Tituba. After first adamantly denying any guilt, afraid
perhaps of being made a scapegoat, Tituba claimed that she was
approached by a tall man from Boston--obviously Satan--who
sometimes appeared as a dog or a hog and who asked her to sign
in his book and to do his work. Yes, Tituba declared, she was
a witch, and moreover she and four other witches, including
Good and Osborn, had flown through the air on their
poles. She had tried to run to Reverend Parris for
counsel, she said, but the devil had blocked her path.
Tituba's confession succeeded in transforming her from a
possible scapegoat to a central figure in the expanding
prosecutions. Her confession also served to
silence most skeptics, and Parris and other local ministers
began witch hunting with zeal.

Soon,
according to their own reports, the spectral forms of other
women began attacking the afflicted girls. Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Cloyce, and Mary Easty(LINK
TO EASTY'S EXAMINATION) (LINK
TO EASTY'S PETITION FOR MERCY) were accused of
witchcraft. During a March 20 church service, Ann Putnam
suddenly shouted, "Look where Goodwife Cloyce sits on the beam
suckling her yellow bird between her fingers!" Soon
Ann's mother, Ann Putnam, Sr., would join the accusers.
Dorcas Good, four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good, became the
first child to be accused of witchcraft when three of the
girls complained that they were bitten by the specter of
Dorcas. (The four-year-old was arrested, kept in jail for
eight months, watched her mother get carried off to the
gallows, and would "cry her heart out, and go insane.")
The girls accusations and their ever more polished
performances, including the new act of being struck dumb,
played to large and believing audiences.

Stuck
in jail with the damning testimony of the afflicted girls
widely accepted, suspects began to see confession as a way to
avoid the gallows. Deliverance
Hobbs became the second witch to confess, admitting to
pinching three of the girls at the Devil's command and flying
on a pole to attend a witches' Sabbath in an open
field. Jails approached capacity and the colony
"teetered on the brink of chaos" when Governor
Phips returned from England. Fast action, he
decided, was required.

Phips
created a new court, the "court of oyer and terminer," to hear
the witchcraft cases. Five judges, including three close
friends of Cotton Mather, were appointed to the court.
Chief Justice, and most influential member of the court, was a
gung-ho witch hunter named William
Stoughton. Mather urged Stoughton and the other judges
to credit confessions and admit "spectral evidence" (testimony
by afflicted persons that they had been visited by a suspect's
specter). Ministers were looked to for guidance by the judges,
who were generally without legal training, on matters
pertaining to witchcraft. Mather's advice was heeded.
the judges also decided to allow the so-called "touching test"
(defendants were asked to touch afflicted persons to see if
their touch, as was generally assumed of the touch of witches,
would stop their contortions) and examination of the bodies of
accused for evidence of "witches' marks" (moles or the like
upon which a witch's familiar might suck) (SCENE
DEPICTING EXAMINATION FOR MARKS). Evidence that would be
excluded from modern courtrooms-- hearsay, gossip, stories,
unsupported assertions, surmises-- was also generally
admitted. Many protections that modern defendants take for
granted were lacking in Salem: accused witches had no legal
counsel, could not have witnesses testify under oath on their
behalf, and had no formal avenues of appeal. Defendants
could, however, speak for themselves, produce evidence, and
cross-examine their accusers. The degree to which
defendants in Salem were able to take advantage of their
modest protections varied considerably, depending on their own
acuteness and their influence in the community.

The
first accused witch to be brought to trial was Bridget Bishop. Almost sixty
years old, owner of a tavern where patrons could drink
cider ale and play shuffleboard (even on the Sabbath),
critical of her neighbors, and reluctant to pay her her bills,
Bishop was a likely candidate for an accusation of
witchcraft (LINK
TO EXAMINATION OF BISHOP). The fact that Thomas Newton,
special prosecutor, selected Bishop for his first prosecution
suggests that he believed the stronger case could be made
against her than any of the other suspect witches. At Bishop's
trial on June 2, 1692, a field hand testified that he saw
Bishop's image stealing eggs and then saw her transform
herself into a cat. Deliverance Hobbs, by then probably
insane, and Mary Warren, both confessed witches, testified
that Bishop was one of them. A villager named Samuel
Grey told the court that Bishop visited his bed at night and
tormented him. A jury of matrons assigned to examine Bishop's
body reported that they found an "excrescence of flesh."
Several of the afflicted girls testified that Bishop's specter
afflicted them. Numerous other villagers described why
they thought Bishop was responsible for various bits of bad
luck that had befallen them. There was even testimony
that while being transported under guard past the Salem
meeting house, she looked at the building and caused a part of
it to fall to the ground. Bishop's jury returned a
verdict of guilty . One of the judges, Nathaniel Saltonstall,
aghast at the conduct of the trial, resigned from the
court. Chief Justice Stoughton signed Bishop's death
warrant, and on June 10, 1692, Bishop was carted to Gallows
Hill and hanged (LINK
TO IMAGE OF BISHOP'S HANGING).

As
the summer of 1692 warmed, the pace of trials picked up.
Not all defendants were as disreputable as Bridget
Bishop. Rebecca Nurse was a pious, respected woman whose
specter, according to Ann Putnam, Jr. and Abagail Williams,
attacked them in mid March of 1692 (LINK
TO
EXAMINATION OF NURSE). Ann Putnam, Sr. added her
complaint that Nurse demanded that she sign the Devil's book,
then pinched her. Nurse was one of three Towne sisters , all
identified as witches, who were members of a Topsfield family
that had a long-standing quarrel with the Putnam family. Apart
from the evidence of Putnam family members, the major piece of
evidence against Nurse appeared to be testimony indicating
that soon after Nurse lectured Benjamin Houlton for allowing
his pig to root in her garden, Houlton died. The Nurse
jury returned a verdict of not guilty, much to the displeasure
of Chief Justice Stoughton, who told the jury to go back and
consider again a statement of Nurse's that might be considered
an admission of guilt (but more likely an indication of
confusion about the question, as Nurse was old and nearly
deaf). The jury reconvened, this time coming back with a
verdict of guilty(LINK
TO NURSE TRIAL). On July 19, 1692, Nurse rode with four
other convicted witches to Gallows Hill.

Persons
who scoffed at accusations of witchcraft risked becoming
targets of accusations themselves. One man who was
openly critical of the trials paid for his skepticism with his
life. John Proctor, a
central figure in Arthur Miller's fictionalized account of the
Salem witchhunt, The Crucible,
was an opinionated tavern owner who openly denounced the witch
hunt. Testifying against Proctor were Ann Putnam,
Abagail Williams, Indian John (a slave of Samuel Parris who
worked in a competing tavern), and eighteen-year-old Elizabeth
Booth, who testified that ghosts had come to her and accused
Proctor of serial murder. Proctor fought back, accusing
confessed witches of lying, complaining of torture, and
demanding that his trial be moved to Boston. The efforts
proved futile. Proctor was hanged. His wife Elizabeth, who was
also convicted of witchcraft, was spared execution because of
her pregnancy (reprieved "for the belly").

No
execution caused more unease in Salem than that of the
village's ex-minister, George
Burroughs. Burroughs, who was living in Maine in
1692, was identified by several of his accusers as the
ringleader of the witches. Ann Putnam claimed that
Burroughs bewitched soldiers during a failed military campaign
against Wabanakis in 1688-89, the first of a string of
military disasters that could be blamed on an Indian-Devil
alliance. In her interesting book, In the Devil's Snare,
historian Mary Beth Norton argues that the large number of
accusations against Burroughs, and his linkage to the frontier
war, is the key to understanding the Salem trials.
Norton contends that the enthusiasm of the Salem court in
prosecuting the witchcraft cases owed in no small measure to
the judges' desire to shift the "blame for their own
inadequate defense of the frontier." Many of the judges,
Norton points out, played lead roles in a war effort that had
been markedly unsuccessful.

Among
the thirty accusers of Burroughs was nineteen-year-old Mercy
Lewis, a refugee of the frontier wars. Lewis, the most
imaginative and forceful of the young accusers, offered
unusually vivid testimony against Burroughs. Lewis told
the court that Burroughs flew her to the top of a mountain
and, pointing toward the surrounding land, promised her all
the kingdoms if only she would sign in his book (a story very
similar to that found in Matthew 4:8). Lewis said, "I
would not writ if he had throwed me down on one hundred
pitchforks." At an execution, a defendant in the Puritan
colonies was expected to confess, and thus to save his
soul. When Burroughs on Gallows Hill continued to insist
on his innocence and then recited the Lord's Prayer perfectly
(something witches were thought incapable of doing), the crowd
reportedly was "greatly moved." The agitation of the crowd
caused Cotton Mather to intervene and remind the crowd that
Burroughs had had his day in court and lost.

One
victim of the Salem witch hunt was not hanged, but rather
pressed under heavy stones until his death. Such was the
fate of octogenarian Giles Corey
who, after spending five months in chains in a Salem jail with
his also accused wife, had nothing but contempt for the
proceedings. Seeing the futility of a trial and hoping
that by avoiding a conviction his farm, that would otherwise
go the state, might go to his two sons-in-law, Corey refused
to stand for trial. The penalty for such a refusal was peine
et fort, or pressing. Three days after Corey's death, on
September 22, 1692, eight more convicted witches, including
Giles' wife Martha, were hanged. They were the last victims of
the witch hunt.

By
early autumn of 1692, Salem's lust for blood was ebbing.
Doubts were developing as to how so many respectable people
could be guilty. Reverend John Hale said, " It cannot be
imagined that in a place of so much knowledge, so many in so
small compass of land should abominably leap into the Devil's
lap at once." The educated elite of the colony began
efforts to end the witch-hunting hysteria that had enveloped
Salem. Increase Mather, the father
of Cotton, published what has been called "America's first
tract on evidence," a work entitled Cases of Conscience,
which argued that it "were better that ten suspected witches
should escape than one innocent person should be condemned."
Increase Mather urged the court to exclude spectral evidence.
Samuel Willard, a highly regarded Boston minister, circulated
Some Miscellany Observations, which suggested that the
Devil might create the specter of an innocent person. Mather's
and Willard's works were given to Governor Phips. The writings
most likely influenced the decision of Phips to order the
court to exclude spectral evidence and touching tests and to
require proof of guilt by clear and convincing evidence.
With spectral evidence not admitted, twenty-eight of the last
thirty-three witchcraft trials ended in acquittals. The three
convicted witches were later pardoned. In May of 1693, Phips
released from prison all remaining accused or convicted
witches.

By
the time the witch hunt ended, nineteen convicted witches were
executed (LINK
TO LIST OF DEAD), at least four accused witches had died
in prison, and one man, Giles Corey, had been pressed to
death. About one to two hundred other persons were arrested
and imprisoned on witchcraft charges. Two dogs were executed
as suspected accomplices of witches.

Scholars
have noted potentially telling differences between the accused
and the accusers in Salem. Most of the accused lived to
the south of, and were generally better off financially, than
most of the accusers. In a number of cases, accusing
families stood to gain property from the convictions of
accused witches. Also, the accused and the accusers
generally took opposite sides in a congregational schism that
had split the Salem community before the outbreak of
hysteria. While many of the accused witches supported
former minister George Burroughs, the families that included
the accusers had--for the most part--played leading roles in
forcing Burroughs to leave Salem. The conclusion that
many scholars draw from these patterns is that property
disputes and congregational feuds played a major role in
determining who lived, and who died, in 1692.

A
period of atonement began in the colony following the release
of the surviving accused witches. Samuel
Sewall, one of the judges, issued a public confession of
guilt and an apology. Several jurors came forward to say that
they were "sadly deluded and mistaken" in their judgments.
Reverend Samuel Parris conceded errors of judgment, but mostly
shifted blame to others. Parris was replaced as minister of
Salem village by Thomas Green, who devoted his career to
putting his torn congregation back together. Governor Phips
blamed the entire affair on William Stoughton. Stoughton,
clearly more to blame than anyone for the tragic episode,
refused to apologize or explain himself. He criticized Phips
for interfering just when he was about to "clear the land" of
witches. Stoughton became the next governor of Massachusetts.

The
witches disappeared, but witchhunting in America did not. Each
generation must learn the lessons of history or risk repeating
its mistakes. Salem should warn us to think hard about
how to best safeguard and improve our system of justice.